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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/25661311">The Rule of Three Kings</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account'>orphan_account</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Forged in Fires [5]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>A Song of Ice and Fire &amp; Related Fandoms, Game of Thrones (TV), Marvel Cinematic Universe</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Canon Typical Violence, Gen, That's why it has the rating it has</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-08-02</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-08-02</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-05 03:13:30</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Mature</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Graphic Depictions Of Violence</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>3</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>6,109</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/25661311</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Petra has learned to trust herself before the men around her.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Jon Snow &amp; Peter Parker, Peter Parker &amp; Loki, Peter Parker &amp; Tony Stark</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Forged in Fires [5]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1731361</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>3</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>5</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. Maegor the Cruel</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Her first two children had been born into the House of Black and White, and she sometimes wondered if she was not better off for it. Rhaneys, shot from the sky over Dorne, Aegon striving for his father’s pride even after Jaehaerys’ death, and Visenya pushed to poisoning her own nephew to secure the throne for Maegor.</p><p>Maegor, who had taken to ruling Kings Landing and the other kingdoms with ferocity, was one to cast the advice of a grandmother aside. He knew little of ruling, and little of women, but plenty of fighting. He learned to rule not from the example of his father or his mother, but from the thrill of power. His aspirations became holding the throne, he said, as his half-brother had not managed. Her freedom was compromised, as Maegor demanded her to be held in the Red Keep as soon as it was finished. To be confined only to it and its grounds in an effort to maintain a stranglehold on whatever members of the family he could.</p><p>Certainly, there were Targaryens at Dragonstone, but as she had come to Kings Landing for her son’s, and then grandson’s, funerals she was one of few Maegor could demand maintain her presence there. By the time the rebellions presented legitimate dangers, she had been trapped and her wings clipped.</p><p>“I hear you executed the men who built this place.”</p><p>“Of course I did, grandmother.” He looked frustrated, as though speaking to a dim-witted child. “The secrets of this Keep will belong to me, and me alone.”</p><p>“Not even to your sons?”</p><p>The look of fury on his face, the scowl, meant she was coming close to his ire. They both knew how he felt of talk of sons.</p><p>*</p><p>Tony had found the information on one of several late-night benders. He had been kept in a cave, because there was a history there to exploit. The others could be held anywhere, so long as it was kept secure.</p><p>Petra had retired to the small quarters she and Jon had taken up, and he had kept working, working, working through the night as though hammering away at the keyboard would solve the problem any faster. This time, certainly, it had.</p><p>Maybe that was why the habit kept itself going – he saw results if he did it enough.</p><p>He had a location – two plausible ones, technically, but he had suspicions that the person or people in charge of all of this were doing with the Captain and his Sergeant as they had done with him. One had significantly fewer guards, based on the satellite footage he had found, but that told him surprisingly little about which person was where. Steve could be an argumentative bastard when he wanted to be, but Barnes was by far the more dangerous of the two.</p><p>He showed her the footage, and her eyes peered over it for several moments, her puzzlement showing through. She was a strategist, he figured, surely with a bit of time she would have something to say for it.</p><p>“There is certainly something to be said for their confidence, if they hold two supersoldiers but only guard one effectively. Either that, or we have found something rather unexpected.”</p><p>“Unexpected how?”</p><p>“These only show us the outer areas, we cannot see into where they are hiding their hostages. While rather intelligent on their part, it means they could have a much more thorough regiment within these two compounds.” She had some pause to her as she considered her next move. She read the maps before her like chessboards, and she looked between them quickly. “How far apart are these locations?”</p><p>“Two miles.”</p><p>“If things go tits up, then we at least have a shorter distance to cover.” She was rarely crass, and it was almost like seeing some of her normal personality coming through.</p><p>“How does May feel about you talking like that?” He had hoped she would read it for what it was, harmless teasing.</p><p>The look in her eyes was not amused, but it was not angered either. “She has greater concerns, I assure you.”</p><p>*</p><p>When Alys was murdered for the birth of her child, any and all suspicions Petra had for Tyanna of the Tower were amplified. She was a dangerous player, and Petra was going to be damned to see her family fall into her grasps. It was then she began plotting, knowing that the worst impulses of her grandson were only avoiding his family for so long. Kinslaying meant nothing to a King whose mother brought him the throne on a kinslaid King.</p><p>Her greatest disappointment in those years had been Visenya.</p><p>She had orchestrated the removal of Alyssa and her children. Paid the necessary people to spirit her away into the North. While the cold may have been foreign to the hot Valyrian blood, it was far and isolated. The Starks of Winterfell had bent the knee to her son, and now they hid her grandchildren and kept them at their mercy.</p><p>Brandon Stark, the son of Torrhen, and his wife of House Manderly were accommodating and discreet, to be sure. Prince Viserys had stayed behind, had sought to curry favor with his uncle, but had died. She had lost members of her family to her own grandson. She could not be more disgusted with him; the Septons placed as her guards whispered that a mother’s love ought be boundless, as Visenya’s was for Maegor, but Petra loathed the man.</p><p>Her pace through the gardens, where she took her daily walk to avoid the septons and their prattling about the Seven as they tried to get her to beg them favor with the King after the disaster with the Faith only a few years past, quickened. She had to think ahead. She had to plan for Maegor being removed from the Throne.</p><p>She looked towards the Red Keep. The large, imposing building that it was.</p><p>*</p><p>They brought Rhodey in to look at what Tony had found.</p><p>“You have nothing more to say about this, seriously?” Rhodey and Petra had found kindred spirits in one another; a partner in strategy in a sense, as both of them fired down one another’s suggestions and borrowed elements in order to plan for the broader reunions that would be happening in time. These types of games, the interpersonal ones, were the ones Howard had never taught him. Nor had his mother, for that matter. Money had been their way of soothing tensions, but money could only solve problems for so long before it became worthless.</p><p>“You heard my suggestion, and you dismissed it.</p><p>“I still say small groups to infiltrate both simultaneously would be best, and you will be hard-pressed to convince me otherwise.”</p><p>“We have better chances if we do them one at a time.”</p><p>“Put a magic user on each squad and you take an advantage.” Her hand had gone just above her head, palm up as she exclaimed her disagreements. Jon was still looking at the maps himself, yet to weigh in. “But if you do things one at a time, the other will be on high alert. Two miles is a fast run, faster if they have transport, and they will compensate if we delay.”</p><p>Rhodey scowled, and that was how he always indicated defeat in their college days, so Tony took it to mean quite the same here. Jon looked to Petra. “How are we supposed to get your evidence if we’re busy pulling people out of there.”</p><p>Petra stilled. “You raise an important quandary, Jon Snow. What would you suggest?”</p><p>She was back in a near maternal mode as she posed the question, likely having thought ahead as soon as it was brought forth.</p><p>“You and that other man, you both can change your faces. You could go in a day early, and act through the day as one of them. Get your evidence and have a man on the inside.”</p><p>“You’re familiar with this line of work,” Petra’s tone brooked no disagreement. “Explain.”</p><p>“I was in a wildling camp for a while, acting as one of them to inform to the Watch.”</p><p>She nodded. “Well done, if you managed to fool them. And well done with your strategy. What are the flaws?”</p><p>“You could get discovered if you’re not careful. That Loki fellow, more than you given the shadowbinding gives you some memories. But you said yourself you’re out of practice, and if you slip up you could give yourself away.”</p><p>“Excellent.”</p><p>Rhodey, who had watched the two, looked over at Tony. “When we’re done with all this, can I please get them into the military? It’d be great.”</p><p>“If you can get her to take an order, sure.”</p><p>*</p><p>The Black Brides, bringing that Pentoshi brat into the family and then allowing her to run rampant and poison any children he may have had, it riled Petra to her core. Maegor would have no positive legacy, to be certain, but there was a movement behind Jaehaerys. He may have written, in his masked correspondences, of his intent to marry his own sister (knowing full well her frequently voiced opinions on the matter), but she would compromise there in that having Maegor off the Throne would do more good than harm.</p><p>She heard the War Council go on from where she stood in the Throne Room. She waited until she heard them all leave, then longer for their steps to be out of her hearing range. Maegor, as he was wont, was sulking on the Throne. Sulking and brooding and glowering, all things that he had done throughout his reign instead of heeding counsel and doing what could be done for his people. Six years she had hoped for her grandson to mature, to take responsibility for his role in the realm.</p><p>Jaehaerys had become a thorn to him, he saw him as a threat and not as the nephew that would inevitably take the Throne after Maegor, given his track record with heirs. No, he failed to see that Jaehaerys was fighting for peace in the realm, for an end of Maegor’s ferocity and tyranny.</p><p>“How long did you think it would take?”</p><p>She was leaning on a pillar, out of sight of the Throne and those who had previously occupied the room.</p><p>“Show yourself, Grandmother.”</p><p>*</p><p>Loki did not like their plan, but as it was the best one they had at the moment, it would have to do. He kicked up a fuss, and it amused Petra to no end.</p><p>“From one old bat to another, I would suggest you stop acting so insolent.”</p><p>“You are seriously not worried about this?” He looked to her as though she was insane. “You’re only immune to age, if you had forgotten.”</p><p>“I know that far better than a man who bore witness to a mere eight months of my life.” She leaned into the couch, her book on her lap closed over her finger.</p><p>Loki had taken, after being formally instated as an Avenger, to hiding from the Starks and others in the Compound in hers and Jon’s quarters. A modest apartment (the only modest apartment on offer in the Compound, if she was honest), there were only the two rooms and the moderate living space they shared, but finding Loki passed out or groaning into the couch was nothing new to her by now.</p><p>He did not quite understand humans, and she did not quite understand the modern age, not anymore. They made a pair of confused, clucking hens when they wanted to be. Jon found it utterly annoying, but said nothing in favor of asking Loki to introduce him to any sort of magic that could be learned by humans.</p><p>He was a bright young man, she was certainly glad he was finding ways to reconcile himself into this world comfortably.</p><p>“You know this is stupid. Why are you doing it?”</p><p>“Because stupid plans tend to survive contact with the enemy just a little longer than well-thought ones do.”</p><p>“You sound like my brother.”</p><p>“I’m sure that’s not the worst thing you could say to me.” She smiled. “I’ll take it.”</p><p>*</p><p>Two days later, they were getting into position near the compounds. She was to let Rhodey into the one she had infiltrated, whereas Jon would be assisting Tony in the other compound, the one with a heavier guard.</p><p>She had four hours before the planned ambush.</p><p>Four meager hours, during which so many accidents could happen. Before those accidents, however, she had to find documents.</p><p>*</p><p>She approached the Throne almost looking bored. A carefully calculated move, meant to throw her grandson deeper into his notorious rage and anger. “You’ve been a terrible child. You were terrible growing up, and you are terrible now.”</p><p>“I had the approval of the entirety of the Kingdom growing up.”</p><p>“They didn’t know you. The servants at Dragonstone knew you, and your father knew you. Your aunt, before she died, and all of your siblings.” She shook her head. “Oh to see you now, how the dead would weep.</p><p>“Your father built these Kingdoms, pulled them together from warring factions into one. And you spit on his legacy!”</p><p>“No, I protect the legacy of this family. We took these kingdoms by fire and blood, and that is how we will rule!”</p><p>“That is how you rule! You <em>rule</em> by fire and blood, you do not live by it. The words were never meant to be a principle by which we judged others, but a measure of ourselves. Aegon knew that, Rhaenys knew that. Visenya never learned it, and she never taught you.” She glowered at her grandson, she felt the knife that was dangling from a loop on her belt, hidden behind gathered skirts. “You are not fit to be King.”</p><p>*</p><p>She was only able to find so much. Whoever held the Avengers was excellent in covering their tracks. Instead, she used her time to thin the crowd around her. Poison in the water, someone tripping into electrical wire. It was not many that died that die, but it was enough so that when Rhodey joined her in his armor, when they sought out the Captain and then broke their way out (how grateful she ought to be, she considered, that he would be able of breaking the walls if needed in the War Machine armor) they would face less opposition.</p><p>When this mission was over, she would have to turn the water to scalding if only to remove the memory and stain of their deaths from her mind. When this was over, she knew it wouldn’t work.</p><p>*</p><p>Maegor did not expect the first slash of the knife.</p><p>“You would kill the smallfolk before you protected them, if you rule by fire and blood.”</p><p>He scowled at her. “You’re committing a treason, and you slay your kin. What will the Kingsguard do when I call for them. You’re not immune to the law, Grandmother.”</p><p>“Call them, see them run to your side, you demon.” Petrhaella rarely felt rage like this. Rarely allowed it to build into this monster. She took the knife down his other wrist, knowing the blood would stain her gowns. “See them run to you – or will they stand by and watch, breathing a sigh of relief as they watch the threat to their families die on the Iron Throne? You can only wipe out so many lines before people fear you enough to hate you, and when they hate you, they will kill you.”</p><p>She had learned several secrets of the Red Keep. She knew of the door that would hide her from sight when she left.</p><p>Maegor was becoming paler by the minute as his blood drained through his arms. There was no staging an accident, he would be found in the morning.</p><p>He glared up at her, barely managing to whisper. “Is that it? Do you hate me, Grandmother?”</p><p>*</p><p>She opened a side entrance. The entire base was low-tech enough they weren’t looking for the War Machine armor. Evidently, whoever was running this operation did not want to give off too many notifications of its presence, if Rhodey wasn’t mistaken. The lack of anything but electrical lights meant it wouldn’t give off much of a signal at all, if anyone was looking for electronic activity indicators. One more thing that Pepper’s initial team hadn’t considered.</p><p>“Hey, Parker, why didn’t you think to look for electrical signals?”</p><p>She paused in the hall. She was uncomfortable with the gun that was part of her cover, handling it like it was getting in her way. “It never occurred to me.”</p><p>Rhodey kept walking, and she picked up to keep astride of him. “Yeah, but why.”</p><p>“It hasn’t been a tool available to me in such a long time, I suppose I forgot about it.”</p><p>Well that explained at least a little something.</p><p>*</p><p>The piece of the throne that had fallen, that pierced his neck when she pulled his head back by his hair, was removed before Jaehaerys I was put into power.</p><p>Jaehaerys never asked after Maegor’s death. She never wrote of it in her journals.  </p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. The Mad King, Aerys II</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Aerys was one of many mad kings born into her line. Some looked to her as the cause – a witch like that in the line and things were bound to go wrong, they said. Others speculated that she was the one to kill Maegor, and that she was the one who tried to keep the line from descending entirely into the grip of madness. She had stopped paying attention to most of her reputation a long time ago. What wasn’t lies was pointless and what wasn’t pointless was, largely, lies.</p><p>His indignities upon his sister-wife, upon Rhaella, only infuriated her further.</p><p>The Tower of the Hand was one place to find even some refuge, if only in the dark of night when most of the spies were asleep and the ones looking were not looking towards shadows for anyone out of place, but rather to the open halls.</p><p>She knocked, as was her habit, instead of merely entering. Ser Ilyn Payne opened, his anger still palpable in his face for all that her grandson’s rage had pulled his speech out with his tongue. Thanking him, she took to the stairs to where her objective was.</p><p>“Queen Mother.”</p><p>“Lord Lannister.”</p><p>“For how often you visit me in the dark of night, I ought to tell you to call me by my name. Your rank certainly entitles you to it.”</p><p>“I will do no such thing, at least while Aerys sits the throne. He did your wife a great disservice at your wedding, and I fear he will only continue to jape at her expense if only to get under your skin.”</p><p>“Joanna is pregnant, and will be remaining at Casterly Rock until she has birthed the child. I will be joining her for the birth.”</p><p>“You are one of few men who opt to do so.” She took her seat across from him, looking to his papers. “Tell me it true, does Aerys continue to drive us into debt.”</p><p>“He never stopped. I paid his former debts with gold from Casterly Rock, which I <em>will</em> be holding the Crown responsible for, but he has not curbed his spending in the slightest.”</p><p>“He is a blight upon my family, and I cannot do anything about it.”</p><p>“If the rumors the historians report are true, there is plenty for you to do about it.”</p><p>“I should think a man like you wise enough not to parlay in rumors. Hard information is far more valuable.”</p><p>“Hard information is often hard to come by, if Your Grace has forgotten. Sometimes, an oft-repeated rumor is the best you can do.”</p><p>“Lord Lannister, I do not need to remind you that I hold no real power in Kings’ Landing. The title of Your Grace is entirely unnecessary.</p><p>“I wish your wife a safe delivery and a healthy child. I certainly will not be able to guarantee such a thing for my granddaughter so long as this appalling practice of sibling marriage continues, and so long as Aerys insists on keeping her chained to the Holdfast as a broodmare.”</p><p>Tywin was not disposed to kindnesses, and Petrhaella was immediately suspicious when he followed this with, “Queen Mother, I doubt I need to remind <em>you </em>that not all power must have concrete delineation. As for Queen Rhaella, I can see about finding justification to send her to Dragonstone. I do not, however, offer any promises.”</p><p>“And what sort of debt would that incur?”</p><p>*</p><p>Tony had not nearly the easy time he would later hear Rhodey and Petra had. Instead, something went wrong at every turn and he almost wanted to blame Loki for it. Except, he couldn’t, because the rat bastard had followed all the details of the plan to the letter, including finding any and all information he could and handing it over to Tony. No, when shit went, as he had once heard Petra say, ‘tits up’, it was because their illustrious Captain was too stubborn to just walk quietly. He had to question <em>everything</em>.</p><p>“If you had just kept your mouth shut for ten minutes, we would have been out of here. Now we’ll be late to the rendezvous.”</p><p>“I thought someone kidnapped you, too, Stark.”</p><p>“I got out.”</p><p>Loki grumbled under his breath before snapping at them. “Would both of you shut up? I would rather not have myself embarrassed by needing rescued by your damned fire witch. We have to plan something, otherwise I will leave you both behind and let <em>her</em> handle it.”</p><p>“Fire witch?”</p><p>“We’ll get there when we get there.” Tony scowled. “Alright, Tricksie, what are you thinking?”</p><p>Loki glowered. “Unfortunately, it involves leaving yet more evidence behind.”</p><p>*</p><p>Aerys was on another of his rampages, but that did not stop Petrhaella from hosting the Lady Tyrell and Lord Lannister in her private quarters. Her grandson would be suspicious, regardless. Best to make at least a passing move towards enjoying the day.</p><p>Tywin and Olenna despised one another. It was great fun to watch, as neither was willing to turn down the invitation on account of the other being there, both being just this shy of young enough they had something to prove; one day soon and that would change, but for now Petrhaella would take any excuse to enjoy the collision.</p><p>“I hear our illustrious sovereign has seen fit to mock you at the expense of your wife once more. My deepest apologies, and sincerest condolences for your loss.”</p><p>“I was in mourning, at Casterly Rock, when that beast you call a grandson declared my wife’s death the <em>humbling</em> he thought I needed, and you have the audacity to apologize for him?! I would rather hear it from his own mouth.”</p><p>Tywin Lannister, when angered, was the Tywin Lannister she preferred. The Great Lion did not go to nearly the lengths to disguise his opinions and positions when his anger was involved. That, too, would change one day. At least, it would in front of her. People often went from honest to careful when the consequences of her long life began to set in. After all, a long life meant a long memory.</p><p>“Oh, you fool, she wasn’t apologizing for her grandson. No apologies in the world match that.”</p><p>“Then who, pray tell, was she apologizing <em>for</em>.”</p><p>“My family.” Petrhaella poured wine for the three of them, resting against her seat back. “Aerys hardly counts among them, but Rhaegar is more level-headed, and with luck his children will be too.”</p><p>“What must it be like,” Lady Olenna started, “to be the matriarch of so many generations? Not knowing on which side the coin will land?”</p><p>“I bank on madness and breathe my relief on the few occasions it is benevolence or genius. At least that way, I’m never taken by surprise when one of the daft idiots starts a war.”</p><p>“You do not discipline your grandchildren enough if so many of them end up disposed towards madness. A firm hand would be an effective guide.”</p><p>“You try disciplining a half-mad grandson with rank above you and the power to order your execution,” Petrhaella tilted her head and sipped her wine. “I guarantee you won’t like it either, and you will have just as little luck as I have.”</p><p>Olenna laughed at that, raising her glass. “May the day never come that a mad one of Tywin’s brood sits on that ugly, old chair.”</p><p>Tywin was not quite amused – Petrhaella was aware of his designs for the Throne, for making his daughter Queen, and she very nearly supported him in it if it were not for his penchant for dramatic vengeance in the name of paying debts – but he certainly took it in the spirit it was offered.</p><p>A healthy line with no reason to cause enemies. The most any Great House of Westeros could hope for, besides the Throne.</p><p>*</p><p>Loki’s plan blew up in their face spectacularly, but some quick thinking and Tony managed to turn it in their favor, to get them out.</p><p>“Your fire witch would have been more useful.”</p><p>“She has a name!”</p><p>“Oh she has many names,” Loki had a half-crazed look. “I found out a number of them. You know what the soldiers there called her? The Undying. The Dragon Queen’s bloodriders called her the Abomination. Some called her the Queen Mother, and even more called her any variety of Kingslayer and kinslayer. That witch of yours is terrifying, and you’re just too blind to see it.”</p><p>“Where’d you find her?” Cap looked at him as they walked.</p><p>“She was the spider-kid from Berlin, a couple years ago.” Tony shrugged. “Got herself wrapped up in something, and when it didn’t pan out the way anyone was expecting, she evidently disappeared to a whole other world and fucked shit up there.”</p><p>“I did not, as you so eloquently put it, ‘fuck shit up’, Mister Stark.” Jon was behind her, his sword at his hip as though there wasn’t blood on the leg of his pants from wiping it off, but Petra looked near terrifying in her excitement. “Rather, I learned the game, and played it to my advantage.</p><p>“It’s amazing how easy it is to play when your only goal is survival.”</p><p>*</p><p>“What was that you once said, about Rhaegar not being mad like his father?” Tywin had no expression on his face, but for once something approaching humor leaked into his voice.</p><p>Rhaegar had crowned Lyanna Stark Queen of Love and Beauty and Petrhaella was ready to have his head on a spike for it. The damned fool had as near as confirmed rumors circulating that he was looking to cast his wife off, to make Aegon and Rhaenys bastards by law in order to pursue this mythical third child. Damn woods witches and their prophecies.</p><p>Damn men and their egos.</p><p>Lady Olenna, standing at her other side leaned towards her as well. “Perhaps it was too late in the bloodline to start trying to diversify. It looks as though madness may breed strong in your lot. Even with Dornish blood in <em>his</em> children, this is two in a row. My hopes for his children have just dramatically decreased.”</p><p>The worst part was she couldn’t prove them wrong. “I hate you both.”</p><p>*</p><p>Sergeant Barnes seemed to like Petra and Jon well enough. All three of them were content to walk in silence, and Jon and Bucky were brooders by nature. Broody brooders, for all that it irritated the shit out of Tony. The only one to antagonize (given Loki might actually kill him if he pushed it too far) was Cap, and he was too focused on interrogating Petra.</p><p>Been there, done that. Get her focused on something first and you’ll get something, but other than that she was a steel trap.</p><p>“So how did you end up with only one grandkid alive, if you had three children and they all had children?”</p><p>“My descendants are half-witted fools, all of whom got themselves killed. Even Jon was killed for his foolishness. He managed to come back, so maybe we’re getting somewhere.”</p><p>Oh? Answers? Jon blushed and avoided the looks he got from Bucky and Loki at mention of his murder.</p><p>“How’d they die?”</p><p>“Would you like a list alphabetized by name or itemized by cause?” She rolled her eyes. “I swear, you give people a little information and they take it as an invitation to ask after more. This is why I don’t say a word to people</p><p>“Let them guess at things themselves. The truth is too far flung for their fancy, and their fancy is often far from truth.”</p><p>*</p><p>Tywin visited her once in Dorne, Olenna far more often.</p><p>Tywin never admitted to coordinating his visit to avoid Olenna, but it went without saying as the relations between Tyrell and Lannister frosted over in the aftermath of Robert’s Rebellion. Tywin came to her in clothing far to hot for the Dornish climate, but she knew he would not change it. The man was stubborn as he was prideful, and he suffered for it in the name of his dignity.</p><p>She rather liked the Dornish styles, but then she also wasn’t aging like he was.</p><p>“Your son did a great service to this land.”</p><p>“He killed a King. He has marred his reputation, and by extension our family’s, forever.”</p><p>“He removed a mad man from power, and if it wouldn’t get me killed I would congratulate him for it. Certainly, someone must.</p><p>“And besides, you overestimate the length of collective memory. It will not always reach so far back as to look at Jaime Lannister with anger and hatred.”</p><p>Tywin left that night, despite the stay being planned for longer. He was not welcome in Dorne and the only person for him to visit was on the exact opposite side of him in handling the issue of his son’s crimes. Tywin wanted to discipline the boy privately, wanted her to write with censure to the boy that there might be something for him to face, but she would not. She and Robert Baratheon agreed on one thing, and that was the issue of the Kingslayer, Jaime Lannister. He would be shielded from his crimes. As she would brook no argument on her stance, Tywin had no purpose, and no debts to pay or collect. She had made sure of that.</p><p>A Lannister always paid their debts, as she well knew, so she made sure that she never took one out. The interest on them could be killer.</p>
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<a name="section0003"><h2>3. Jaehaerys III (Jon Snow)</h2></a>
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    <p>The King in the North was not, like so many of the men of her line, a complete blundering idiot when she met him. He had some semblance of an idea what he was doing, and she would forever thank Ned Stark for his hand in putting at least the barest threads of sense in him. Northerners, for all their reputation cast them as prudish and backwards, had heads on their shoulders.</p><p>And then he went and bent the knee to Daenerys and Petra had to fight the urge to scream. He had something going – he could have reclaimed his home and been on his merry way if he had played his cards right.</p><p>She was sitting with Sansa, in the Lord’s solar when the topic came up. “He bent the knee to his own aunt, whom he is fucking.”</p><p>“Rather crass of you, Lady Stark.”</p><p>“You’ve said worse.”</p><p>“Oh, certainly.” She raised her glass of ale towards Sansa. Northerners didn’t drink as much wine, it was largely ale up this far. She was building a bit of a taste for it, though. It was heavy and honest – wine often cloyed on the tongue. “But even so, if I can prevent it going to marriage, I will.”</p><p>“Why?”</p><p>“Because incest got the Targaryens where they were in the first place, and I won’t have it destroying us entirely. Jon is the last hope for my family.”</p><p>“Daenerys still lives. She is a hope.”</p><p>“She is too much like Aegon for her own good. But where Aegon was willing to rule and had the experience as the heir to Dragonstone to build off of, she was a Khaleesi. Wife and later ruler of a nomadic tribe is hardly the same as negotiating the kinds of issues she will face in Kings’ Landing, and I do not like her penchant for the dramatic.”</p><p>Sansa laughed at the absurdity. “Did you just call burning people alive dramatics?”</p><p>“I did.” Petra leaned in, a small smile on her face as she drew the Sansa out of her shell that she had been hoping to see – the Sansa that could command the dawn, in the sayings of old Valyrian legends. “At its core, don’t you think that’s all it is? A show and spectacle? If you want someone dead for any purpose other than sending a message, you certainly don’t burn them.”</p><p>“What do you do then?”</p><p>“If you’re not executing them, you stage an accident.” She tilted her head to the side as she thought of Oberyn, another man who died in a fool’s errand of a fight. “Or you poison them.”</p><p>“I see why you and Arya get along so well.”</p><p>“Your sister is a whip. I love her dearly, and if I could I would take her in and name her my child and heiress.”</p><p>“I almost think she’d let you.” Sansa was smiling, even if she wasn’t still laughing.</p><p>*</p><p> Once the party of seven that had marched towards the hidden away Quin-Jet was truly safe, Loki rounded on Petra. “The next time they say to split up the magic users, I’m going to assume it was your idea and I will render your limbs entirely useless, Witch.”</p><p>“And the next time you make a threat, make sure it is one you can deliver on, Magician.”</p><p>Tony had witnessed very little of their relationship, but it was enough to know he wasn’t going near it. Not without protective gear.</p><p>Loki’s robe started smoking, and Petra raised an eyebrow. “You kill me, I kill you.”</p><p>“Likewise.”</p><p>*</p><p>Jon bent the knee. He ceded the throne to one threat for assistance against the other – the words of a man like Torrhen Stark did not belong in this conversation.</p><p>“Your dick was hard!”</p><p>Jon flushed, and she almost laughed. Almost.</p><p>“She has three dragons, we can use them against the Others.”</p><p>“The Others be damned, you didn’t consider that this could be flung right back in your face!”</p><p>Their argument went on for hours. Daenerys was the eventual interruption, coming in with hesitance Petrhaella had come to understand was uncharacteristic of her.</p><p>“Grandmother.”</p><p>“Granddaughter.”</p><p>“I had hoped you might have some wisdom to offer me.”</p><p>“You do not want wisdom, you want support.” Petra looked towards Dany. “Those are different things. You will not listen to my wisdom, but as you are family and my <em>other </em>grandchild has seen fit to cede his throne to you, I will offer you my support.”</p><p>“Have you no advice?”</p><p>“I have nothing but contempt for conquering. It rarely ends well for anyone involved.”</p><p>*</p><p>Steve looked at Tony. “Thank you for what you did.”</p><p>“It was Petra’s plan. I’ve told you that.”</p><p>“But you still let it go through.”</p><p>“I’ve learned Petra will do what she damn well pleases, even if others tell her not to. She’ll get herself killed one of these days doing it, but it’s gotten her this far.”</p><p>“She has good instincts.”</p><p>There was an awkward pause.</p><p>“She’s aggressive.”</p><p>“What can you do?”</p><p>“She wasn’t like that always, was she?”</p><p>That was the core of it, the thing that got to Tony. “No. She was nice. She was <em>good</em>. Kind, helped old ladies cross the street and then got excited when they wanted to buy her a churro as a ‘thank you’. She wasn’t like this before.”</p><p>“Some of the men were like that when I was growing up.” Steve fiddled with a spare piece of wire on the desk in front of Tony. “The world threw too much at them. And those that didn’t buckle under the pressure, they sacrificed the best parts of themselves to live on. It took them years to learn how to be gentle again. To be kind.”</p><p>“You think it’s too late for her?”</p><p>Steve shrugged. “If I had to guess, based on how she is with that guy she claims is her grandson? She’s already learned how – she’s just careful about when.”</p>
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